Michael B. Jordan Channels John Wick in The Thomas Crown Affair Trailer

2 min readEvery generation should have a Thomas Crown, it seems. Nearly three decades after Pierce Brosnan starred in The Thomas Crown Affair, which itself was a remake of the 1968 Steve McQueen caper, Michael B. Jordan is directing and starring in his own version slated to release on March 5, 2027. But Jordan’s take is apparently defying tradition—and by that, I mean Jordan’s making him a fist-fighting antihero in the spirit of James Bond and John Wick.On Wednesday, Amazon MGM Studios released the first trailer for The Thomas Crown Affair, directed by and starring Jordan. Under the Oscar-winning actor’s care, Thomas Crown is trading some debonair warmth for a colder and steelier attitude. He is yet another man who lives the high life and comes dressed to kill, with Jordan showing off CQC-style hand-to-hand combat that neither McQueen nor Brosnan had in their takes of the character. Those Thomas Crowns were just rich guys who flirted with hot federal investigators; Jordan’s TC flirts with Adria Arjona while sending dudes to the hospital.You can watch the trailer below.I’m personally a cheap date for these kinds of movies, and I was a big fan of how MBJ steered Creed III to feel like a sports shonen anime. His take on The Thomas Crown Affair is far up my alley, to say nothing of evoking the modern classic that is Tenet with Kenneth Branagh as yet another controlling billionaire art collector. All the same, I am a little deflated that the movie is desaturating the romantic escapism of the previous films in favor of a potentially derivative James Bond imitator.I like suits and martial arts and weapons-grade sexy people falling in love despite their cold exteriors as much as the next person. But like, can’t Thomas Crown just be a rich guy who steals paintings for fun?Maybe I’ll shut up when The Thomas Crown Affair hits theaters next March. Again, the movie checks off so many hyper-specific boxes that I’m already marking my calendar for its release. I just lament what this movie is giving up in its attempts to be something else.